“The presidential election is a turning point. It’s an hour of responsibility for each and every one of us,” emphasized Rania Svigou
“I am sure that, all of us together, with whoever takes on the great responsibility of becoming the head of SYRIZA, we will succeed” noted the secretary of SYRIZA – PS Rania Svigou, at the beginning of the conference that approved the five nominations.
As he noted, “the elections for the election of the president of our party are a turning point. It is an hour of responsibility for each and every one of us.”
“Many say that our big bet is turnout at the polls. We have to win this bet too. Our members, but also every left-wing, progressive citizen who will go to the polls, register with the party and vote next Sunday, must give a resounding message of presence. The turnout should send a big message. The fact that we are here, that SYRIZA-PS is here, is possible” underlined Rania Svigou.
Among other things, he referred to the legacy of Alexis Tsipras, whom he described as an emblematic outgoing president, while speaking about the next day at SYRIZA – PS, he emphasized that it has begun.
“In a difficult moment for the country, but also for the world, today we take the first step for the new era of SYRIZA-PS, for the new struggles for the people and the country.
To regain the trust of the world, to stand next to it again.
With a strong, massive, determined and militant party.
With two words today, with optimism and trust in the members of the party, we open the door for the new wave of SYRIZA-PS to pass. What the occasion and circumstances require.
Comrades, the process of electing a new party president does not take place in hothouse conditions. It is done, and so it should be, in relation to society and its problems. With our eyes open and the fronts of the struggle to what is happening in this time in the country” said Rania Svigou.
Her speech in detail:
“Comrades and comrades,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Permanent Congress.
Emphasizing first of all that the presence of all of us here, with the seriousness and circumspection required by the times, gives a message of hope, and I would even say certainty, to the members and the world of SYRIZA-PS.
We are actually writing the new page for our party, after the negative election result and the resignation of Alexis Tsipras.
And we declare the beginning of the exciting process of reconstruction of SYRIZA-PS.
With the democratic tools shaped by time and our experience.
And with the moral and political support of our iconic outgoing president. By Alexis Tsipras.
Of the country’s first left-wing prime minister.
The head of a government, which he assumed during the most difficult, most dramatic years that Greece experienced after the war.
A government that took our country out of the memorandums and, at the same time, fought for the economically weaker, those and those who then, in the years of the great crisis, had to be the first priority of a truly left-wing, socially just government.
But also led by Alexis Tsipras, he took on another historic responsibility. Because he is the one who signed the historic Prespa Agreement. At the time when the ND was demonstrating on the side of the Golden Dawn, at the time when our executives, especially in Northern Greece, were being attacked even outside their homes.
Alexis Tsipras took over as president of a small Greek party of the radical Left, and managed, during his days, to turn into the largest party of the Left and the progressive space in Europe.
A party that united and inspired people from the radical and renewal left, to ecology and social democracy, the progressive center.
The name of SYRIZA became known throughout the world. it became synonymous with the Left, synonymous with social struggles, a symbol of an entire people who fought for their right, against the powerful of Europe, against austerity, the dissolution of the social fabric, wild neoliberalism.
With this bequest we will proceed now. With faith in our values and ideals, with the knowledge that our experience offers us, but also with self-criticism for what we didn’t do right in the past.
The next day has begun.
In a difficult moment for the country, but also for the world, today we take the first step for the new era of SYRIZA-PS, for the new struggles for the people and the place.
To regain the trust of the world, to stand next to it again.
With a strong, massive, determined and militant party.
With two words today, with optimism and trust in the members of the party, we open the door for the new wave of SYRIZA-PS to pass. What the occasion and circumstances require.
Comrades and comrades,
The process of electing a new party president does not take place in hothouse conditions. It is done, and so it should be, in relation to society and its problems. With our eyes open and the fronts of the struggle in what is happening in this time in the country.
And it is not an exaggeration to say that only the propaganda of the Mitsotakis government can present what is happening as almost natural and inevitable phenomena of the time, or even as positive.
Two and a half months of government by the ND, after the July elections, is a path of trauma for Greece.
A path whose tragic stations are produced by the ideology, inefficiency, arrogance, lack of empathy of Mr. Mitsotakis and his government.
• The terrifying ecological disaster that continues in the Evros, with over 1,600,000 acres burned to date, according to Meteo.
• The murderous attack by foreign neo-Nazis in New Philadelphia.
• The action of raid squads and sheriffs who pursue immigrants.
• And the lie, the cover-up, the distortion that accompany them on the part of the government.
All this leaves no room for optimism for tomorrow.
But also no room for rest and complacency on our part.
Our electoral process must therefore be conducted precisely in the field of resistance to Mitsotakis policies and their results.
Our democratic competition must be competition for the best treatment of them.
To see and pursue the future of restoring SYRIZA-PS to such a position, so that it can once again present itself as the alternative solution to the destructive governance of the New Democracy.
Greece does not deserve the regime of selfishness and indifference to the social majority and virtual reality.
Greece does not deserve the image of an all-powerful prime minister and a divided democratic opposition.
Greece does not deserve the far-right mob that has taken over a few seats in the Parliament. With the encouragement, the ideological and moral cover, of the government and the prime minister himself.
Society does not wait. The ND and the extreme right are already here, and they cast their heavy shadow on the future of the great majority of the Greek people.
Comrades and comrades,
Together with Giorgos Vasiliadis, all the executives of the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee, we undertook a very difficult mission. To lead the Party in an orderly manner in the process of electing a new president.
In a very negative moment, after the heavy defeat of the parliamentary elections. But also after the decision of Alexis Tsipras.
I feel the need to thank all the members and executives of the party who are giving all their strength to this collective effort.
Because we march collectively, with camaraderie, with democracy, with solidarity, with faith in our values.
To make SYRIZA-PS strong again, to bring the left and the progressive faction back to power.
We are already a week before the first station of the next day. A week before the collective, democratic and top-level process, for the emergence of a new leadership.
A process that, despite the difficult conditions of the summer, was embraced by our members, but also by every left-wing and progressive person. Because society expects from us.
He commanded us to rebuild, change, renew.
And all the candidates for the presidency, with their tours throughout the country, with their very successful and massive events and speeches, but above all, with the content of their speech, showed that they are addressing society, to our members but also to the people who voted for us, and above all to all those who had trusted us before, and must trust us again.
With a vision, with a perspective, not only for SYRIZA, but for SYRIZA in society, in the struggles, with a commitment to the needs and anxieties of the world. With vision and perspective for the country itself.
The deeply political speech dominated by all the candidates, the political arguments, despite the different perceptions of each individual, fills us with optimism for the day ahead.
It depends on us, and I am sure that, all of us together, with whoever takes on the great responsibility of being the head of SYRIZA, we will succeed.
The election for the president of our party is a turning point. It is an hour of responsibility for each and every one of us.
Many say that our big bet is turnout at the polls.
We have to win this bet too.
Our members, but also every left-wing, progressive citizen who will go to the polls, register with the party and vote next Sunday, must give a resounding message of presence.
The turnout should send a big message.
That we are here, that SYRIZA-PS is here, is possible.
Because we are the party that wants and fights to represent the interests of the great social majority. To once again assume responsibility towards the progressive world, towards the majority of society.
Greece needs today a strong, united, serious Left.
A strong, united, serious SYRIZA-PS.
Which will give space to the truth, substance to the resistance, perspective to the future of the place and its people.
This should be the motivation and belief of every member of our party.
We exist for the difficult.
We are not afraid of them.
We were not afraid of them in circumstances where everything was overshadowed by the fear of memoranda and bankruptcy.
We have the experience, the ideas, the principles, the people, to fight our new battles.
With our new leadership.
We can and we will.
Everyone together.”
